SCENORAMA is a recently launched collaborative platform for artistic experimentation and new commissions working with artists and transdisciplinary researchers from different locales connected to pan-African experiences.

SCENORAMA combines the words ‘panorama’ and ‘scene’ in order to present a viewpoint of shared networks of experiences, belief and knowledge systems across different localities in Africa and the Diaspora. The artists included in this version of SCENORAMA are interested in creating new ways of thinking about the accessibility of individual and collective experiences. With research focuses that oscillate between historiographical impulses, systematic formation and transformation they provide possibilities for the emergence of multiple statements that mark the present by engaging our experiences and perceptions of historical time.

SCENORAMA has travelled to KZNSA Gallery from the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria (Javett-UP) where it ran from May 2022 to March 2023. At Javett-UP the gallery space was choreographed as a living and changing space, with some of the works changing in form over months and, at times spilling out of the gallery into the outside areas of the Javett-UP. At the KZNSA Gallery the works are presented in their ‘complete’ form and activated through educational activities that address positions and questions running through the exhibition.

This curatorial undertaking features research and artistic positions by Amanda Mushate, (ZIM) Luana Vitra (BR), Manyaku Mashilo (SA), Nolan Oswald Dennis (SA), Nyakallo Maleke (SA), Oscar Murillo (COL/UK), Paulo Nazareth (BR), Simnikiwe Buhlungu (SA/NL) & Tessa Mars (HAT/NL) in collaboration, Thierry Oussou (BEN/NL) and Zara Julius (SA). eThekwini based artist Nindya Bucktowar has been invited to join SCENORAMA for this iteration of the project.

This project is made possible through the assistance, partnerships and collaborations with the Frequencies Institute and Oscar Murillo Studio, Stevenson Gallery, Insite/ Commonplaces, First Floor Gallery, the National Arts Council, Goethe Institut, Sao Paulo/Johannesburg and Village Unhu.

SCENORAMA is curated by Javett-UP Curatorial Director Gabi Ngcobo assisted by Gillian Fleischmann and the Javett-UP Curatorial team.